Monday Musings

Does it ever feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day?  That was my Monday.  I have a big presentation I’m working on for next week.  I got to work early so I could leave early to swim, but I just didn’t feel like I was in a place to leave when 3 pm rolled around.  Instead I put the back up plan into effect - the 9 pm swim class in Cochrane.  Except I also had a lot to accomplish at home including laundry.  My tax return (very important). 

And a little bike maintenance. 

The Cervelo went into the shop yesterday for a tune up and won’t be ready for pick up until Wednesday.  I needed to get my road bike ready to ride at spin class tomorrow as it has basically been sitting dormant in my garage since early November.  By the time my tax return was done and filed it was 8:20 pm.  I had 10 minutes to make a decision – swim or fix up the bike.

I opted to fix up the bike as I knew there wouldn’t be enough time to do it before spin class tomorrow.  I still feel guilty about not swimming and there is no time this week to make it up.  Oh well…

All of your comments to my Three Things Thursday post gave me a good chuckle.  22 pairs of shoes at work is a lot, I know!  They all go inside one of the drawers of my large filing cabinet at work, along with some body spray and baby wipes for days when it is a little hot over my lunch time run.  22 pairs of shoes doesn’t even begin to approach the total number of shoes I own though as I haven’t counted how many I have at home!  I blame my genes (my mom loves her shoes too!) and years of watching What Not to Wear while living in close proximity to DSW and an Aldo outlet.

Oh, and Rock Star, they are all briefs.  Every single one of them.

Calgary Police Half Marathon

After last year’s Police Half Marathon I may have mentioned that I didn’t have a lot of desire to run this race again.  The first 1/3 is downhill but the last 2/3 is a lot of tough uphill.  The timing of the race is right on for testing the legs out on a half marathon before triathlon season starts though.  Despite not being a fan of the course I signed up again for 2010.

Saturday was perhaps not the ideal way to spend the evening before the race.  I had a wedding reception to go to that didn’t start until 7:30 in a small town east of Calgary.  I at least wanted to make sure I ate something that I knew would agree with my stomach, so it was off to Olive Garden for dinner.  It isn’t amazing food, but I’ve eaten it before some key races and it has worked out okay.

In the afternoon it started snowing and throughout dinner the snow got heavier and heavier.  Big fluffy flakes of snow…  Yuck!  Then it was off to the wedding reception for some drinks and dancing, then home and bed by 11 pm.  Unfortunately I had an awful sleep where it took me forever to fall asleep, then I woke up at 4 am…then tried to fall back asleep.
When I finally got out of bed at 5:30 am I was feeling pretty rough.  Despite downing coffee and water on the way to my race I still felt either hung-over or sleep deprived, but I’m going for sleep deprived… as I at least played it smart on beverages at the reception.  On the plus side the snow had stopped and had melted over the roads.  That was one definite positive!

I really didn’t have a goal for the race.  Whatever happened, happened.  I was just going to try my best.  Knowing that the easiest part of the course was the beginning I opted to take a chance and run a bit harder than I would have normally.  I wanted to take advantage of the downhill and maybe put some time in the bank.  Would that be smart?  Something that I did differently from last year is I decided to rely on the water stops instead of carrying my own water.  I carried two chocolate mint Gu with me.

I hit the 5K mark around 28 minutes and change, still feeling good.  As soon as we hit the 7K marker the uphills started to come and my legs started to feel “insta-tired.”  Oh well, time to push through!  We ran around the eastern side of the Glenmore Reservoir, then popped out on to 90th Avenue SW.  You run west along 90th Ave for just under a mile and it is a straight, steady uphill.  I just focused ahead, picking out a crosswalk and running toward it, then picking out a light post and running toward it, just keeping a steady pace going.  Along the way a lady who used to train with my team said hello to me, and told me to keep going because I still had a long ways to go.  Those folks around me who heard that comment…well their face just fell!  No one wanted to be reminded that we weren’t even half way there yet!  We turned off of 90th Ave back towards the reservoir to run along the west side of it. 

The legs were getting tired and I always find this part of the pathway mentally tough, even on training runs.  It got a bit crowded and I tried to run my own pace but I found it too easy to tuck in behind the odd person, but then I noticed my pace was slowing down.  There was one particular guy out there who was the loudest breather ever.  I found it really distracting.  He was running strong but he sounded like he was working SO HARD!!!  Do you ever find that things like that throw you off?  The worst part was we played cat and mouse.  I’d move ahead, then he’d catch up and pass me, then just sit right in front of me.  Oh well!

The number one thing that upset me about my race last year was that I really faded in the last few miles.  I walked quite a bit and just felt really negative.  This year even though my legs were tired and I really wanted to walk I just kept going.  In my mind I just kept repeating, “strong, strong, strong, iron…”  I may have been slowing down, but at least I kept running!  My mental fortitude has definitely gotten stronger.

With 5K left I thought I could still gun for a PR if I could run sub-10:00/miles.  Either my math was way off, the course measurement was just long enough to make that theory not work…or both.  My legs were toast by that time and I just barely averaged sub-10:00/miles.  In fact, I’m really not sure how my legs even did that.  They had no energy left in them at all.  I would be excited to just stop running when I hit the finish line!!  There would be no PR.  In fact I was over 2 minutes away from a PR.  But I knew I ran a strong race and pushed through on my tired legs instead of just giving in and walking so there was no disappointment at all.

Chip Time – 2:07:48
Overall 1100 out of 1829
Females 30-39 – 143 out of 310

After the race was done my stomach felt so sour.  I was also afraid to sit down for fear that I wouldn’t get up!  It took awhile for my stomach to come around, which was a first.  Normally I’m starving when I’m done!    Luckily by the time Tara and I got to The Loop Breakfast House my stomach was ready for a little refuelling.

And that was my last running race for awhile.  Bring on multisport season!

Three Things Thursday

Three very random things for this Thursday…

1. Last night there was a wee bit of a conflict between watching the Vancouver Canucks versus the LA Kings in playoff hockey or going to my swim class in Cochrane at 9 pm.  Hockey won out, and it was actually a fantastic game.  Boy I love playoff hockey!
2. Yesterday I took inventory of all of my shoes in my office.  22 pairs in total. 9 pairs of black, 5 brown, 3 purple (I love purple shoes), 1 burgundy, 1 pair of boots, 2 pairs of retired running shoes, and 1 pair of active running shoes.  Apparently my office is where my running shoes go to retire?  I thought about taking a few pairs home, but honestly, they get a lot more use at work than at home!
3. It really astounds me how many random pairs of underwear I see on the side or roads around here.  Men’s underwear.  There is a pair in the alley behind my office building, plus a pair on the side of the road that I ride along to get from my house to Bearspaw.  How does it get there?  Why is it there?  I find this quite disturbing, particularly for the fact that I see it so often.  Weird.

Beginner’s Night?

Tonight we had the option to ride indoors at Crestmont or to meet at Edworthy to ride hill repeats.  With highs in the low to mid 20s it is hard to pass up an opportunity to ride outside on a weekday in April.  Off to Edworthy I went!  Tri shorts, a tank and a short sleeve jersey was all that was needed!

Repeat #1 – 6:00

Something was wrong with my bike.  I could hear something rubbing and it felt like I was pedaling through sludge.  What was up with that?  I hadn’t even reached the tough part of the hill yet!  I pulled over at a safe spot and found that the side of my wheel was rubbing.  After that…what a difference!

Repeat #2 – 5:56 and Repeat #3 – 6:51

It started to feel like amateur hour out there!  I was having a lot of trouble clipping in on my left foot.  I started up the hill and I couldn’t shift from my big chain ring to my small ring.  Then I couldn’t shift anywhere in my back ring so I had to get off the bike to do it manually.  Stopping I’d almost fall over to the other side.  What on earth was happening out there??  You’d think I’d never ridden a bike before!  On the third repeat I was pondering that my legs were moving so slowly, but the folks around me were pedaling at a much faster clip.  Were they just that much stronger, or did I just need to turn my legs over faster in an attempt to keep momentum?

Repeat #4 – 5:26

Pedal faster, keep pedaling, don’t slow down, keep going….  I didn’t feel any more fatigued trying to pedal faster than on my previous repeats and I made it up the hill faster.  Woo hoo!

Repeat #5 – 4:57

At the bottom of the hill I ran into Sarah and she told me she was going to ride this final repeat with me.  As we went up she told me to think about focusing on something different every 10 strokes.  10 strokes – focus on pushing down with the pedals.  10 strokes – focus on pulling up and utilizing different muscles.  10 strokes – focus on your left leg.  10 strokes – focus on your right leg.  It paid off and my final repeat was also my fastest!

And what about the road?  The last time I rode repeats at Edworthy there was still quite a bit of gravel on the narrow road in and out of the park that we ride.  Today it was obvious that the road had been swept, so that was nice!

And don’t forget about the brick!  Even though I had already knocked out my 30 minute run earlier in the day Angie still wanted me to do at least a 10 minute brick run.  I packed the bike away in the car and ran with my friend Nola.  We spent so much time chatting that the 10 minutes over before I knew it.  Somehow or I other I made it through one gong show of a workout!  Phew!

Get used to it!

On Sunday I had a 90 minute run on my schedule.  I met up with Tara at Edworthy early in order to knock it out.  Tara was keen for company so I was more than happy to oblige.  As soon as we got going I could tell my legs were flat.  The worst part is, as we headed out we had a tail wind and my legs just weren’t coming around.  Oh well, it has been quite a busy set of training, including some tough hill repeats on Thursday so I guess I’m not surprised.  I told Tara that I’d be perfectly fine with turning around early, so 30 minutes in we headed back and now into the wind. 

What is it with running in the wind?  When you have a tail wind it feels so calm around you.  You run into the wind and you can’t hear anything!  How come it is so different in two different directions?

While I never fully got that jump going in my legs they did start to feel better and I just didn’t want to call it quits one hour in.  We ran to our cars, took a quick bathroom break, then headed out just a bit further to make for a 1:20 run.  We both had places to be soon thereafter so 1:20 was all that was possible.

Angie told me that during Ironman training there will be a lot of workouts where I just don’t feel great.  Welcome to Ironman training!  As I’ll be tired a lot of the time I’ll have to get used to it!  Luckily this week is fairly light in anticipation of the Police Half Marathon this weekend.

Later in the afternoon I hit up the pool for a swim – a 1500m race distance swim, followed by some sprints and a cool down.  I worked to be very mindful of my wrists, keeping them straight throughout my stroke.  As I kept swimming it felt more and more natural.  I did a couple of stroke counts but no real change there, nor on my pace with this technique modification.  I’m sure as I keep it up I’ll start to see some changes soon!

Hints of Summer

The weather in Calgary this weekend was absolutely sublime.  Almost like summer as the temperatures got up to around 20C (68F).  How best to take advantage of it?

Saturday looked like the nicest day, so I hit the road for a 2 hour ride.  I picked a route I had ridden once before in July of last year.  It is accessible from my house, takes me over some hilly roads past fancy houses, farms, cows, horses and oil wells.  It ends with a straight shot down highway 1A from Cochrane back to Calgary.  I dressed in capri riding tights, a short sleeve tech top, a short sleeve jersey and arm warmers.  Within a few miles the arm warmers were coming off as it was so warm out.  Warm out does not equal no wind around these parts though and it really felt like the wind was all around.  Oh well, ride on!  The sky was clear and the mountains looked absolutely beautiful as I rode towards the west.  The promise of summer, the promise of long rides outside around my city put a smile on my face.  It felt good to be outside!

I felt strong on the hills and tried to trust myself to not brake so much on the downhills.  I also tried going into aero, just getting the feel for my bike.  Before I knew it I was on the outskirts of Cochrane, ready for the final 10 mile stretch along the highway towards home.  There is a net downhill from Cochrane to Calgary, and despite the fact that you are riding on a highway, the shoulder is very wide so I don’t mind the traffic too much.  It looked as though the shoulder had been swept recently as there wasn’t too much gravel out there.  The wind was wicked along here though.  While I can normally hammer home in my big chain ring I couldn’t get out of my small chain ring.

Then all of a sudden it happened.  4 miles from home and I felt the familiar rumble from my back wheel.  A quick glance down confirmed that my rear tire was without a doubt…very…flat.  I hopped off the bike and moved over into the grass, well away from the road.  I could do this, no problem!  I took my back wheel off (why is it always your back wheel that goes flat??), moved the tire over to one side and took out the tube.  Thankfully I had the presence of mind to check the tire for debris and I found it – a staple that I’d ridden over embedded in my tire.  If I had missed that the next tube would be flat as soon as I attempted to inflate it.  I grabbed a spare tube and attempted to blow some air into the valve but nothing.  Hmm, maybe a squirt from my CO2 cartridge would help?

The Ultraflate Plus from Genuine Innovations rocks by the way.  I don’t ever have to worry about accidentally releasing my CO2 into the atmosphere instead of my tube.

Anyhow, with the CO2 cartridge nothing happened besides the valve stem starting to freeze up.  Upon closer inspection it looked like some of the rubber inside the tube has fused together.  On to my second and final tube.  No pressure….if anything happened to this tube I would be hooped!  No sense thinking who I would call to come rescue me unless it came down to that though…  Just stay calm, inflate a bit of air into the tube, manoeuvre it into place between the rim and the tire.  Check to make sure it isn’t caught under the bead of the tire anywhere and move the tire back into place.  Then inflate.  Whew!

I grabbed all my trash, put the wheel back on the bike and headed for home.  I was worried it wouldn’t hold, but it got me home.  2 hours, just like last year, but this time with a lot more wind than when I rode before.  When I analysed the data compared to last year I was significantly stronger on the hills (where I had more of a crosswind) and the ride home into the wind was the great equalizer between this year and last year. 

On Friday I had been chatting with a friend about getting comfortable changing a flat.  I had suggested that she take her wheel off and practice changing a tube out while sitting in the comfort of her living room.  If you are comfortable with it at home you’ll know what to do when you flat on the road.  Riders around here are super nice and always stop to see if you need a hand, but it is best to not have to rely on someone to come by.  You may blow a few tubes at home, but better at home than to go through your only two tubes while you are still miles away from your end point.  Um, not that I would know anything about that….cough, cough….

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Three Things Thursday

1. I had a major breakthrough at the pool on Wednesday night.  I finally made it for Angie’s swim class and I was so glad I went!  Angie noticed that my wrist was really flapping around.  As soon as I concentrated on keeping my wrist as straight as possible I could feel the change immediately in the water.  I’m excited to try it again in the pool on Friday. 
2. We finished the night off with a sprint drafting drill where we had to try to hang on to toes.  It was a lot of fun.  Considering I have swum on my own so much lately this made a great change of pace.  Now that it is still fairly light out until almost 9 pm it feels a whole lot easier to get out to Cochrane that late at night.
3. I’ve been making Bob’s Red Mill Scottish oats for breakfast at work for the last several months.  I like to add in half a banana to the mix before microwaving.  One day last week I didn’t have a banana and my oatmeal exploded inside the microwave.  Interesting….there is something about microwaving banana and oatmeal together that prevents an explosion…  Of course the banana makes the oatmeal taste so much better, so it is really a win-win situation all around!

Are you prepared?

I briefly mentioned last week that I was taking First Aid on Wednesday and Thursday.  First Aid training is covered through my job, and it has been far too long since I’ve been certified.  When my friend mentioned wanting to take the course I jumped on the bandwagon for training through St. John Ambulance.

Last year on a ride one of my teammates crashed, broke her collarbone and suffered a concussion.  I had no idea what to do or how to respond.  Between biking, hiking and just life in general I knew I needed to update my skills and be more comfortable with First Aid.  You never know when something is going to happen!  The reminders on CPR and choking were great, and we practiced splinting broken bones, tying slings and using AEDs.  While we all hope that nothing happens, it is good to be prepared.  Knowledge of proper First Aid can make all the difference in an emergency situation.

Besides being prepared there are a few things you can do to keep safe – make sure that people know where you are going to be and how long you are going to be.  Be safety conscious!  If you are riding, know the rules of the road and ride defensively.  Run defensively!  If I’m running I’ll wave at drivers as I’m crossing the street in front of them – to say thanks for stopping and to make sure I know that they see me.  Invest in a Road ID or Yikes ID so that all of your emergency information is close at hand.

Do you have any other safety tips?

*Thanks again for all the congratulations for my race on Sunday!*

Glencoe Icebreaker 10K

The game plan for this week was to arrive at the start line for the Glencoe 10K with tired legs.  On Tuesday I ran an easy 30 minutes.  Wednesday was my two hour long run.  On Friday I ran 53 minutes of speed work with 8 x 2:00 speed intervals.  20 some odd miles of running this week including speed work?  Crazy!

For Glencoe I figured I had nothing to lose.  My goal was to run uncomfortably…to push as hard as I could just to see what I was capable of.  If I blew up, oh well!  I could blame my hard week.  Best case scenario I might just surprise myself.  When I told my friend and teammate Sharon about my goals her eyes just lit up.  She told me that whenever I thought it was getting hard that I just needed to tell myself that I could do this and she was really encouraging.  (Sharon…by the way….is super speedy!)I didn’t want to make the mistake of starting too far back from the start line, so I got right up close.  This way I wouldn’t have to dodge and weave through the crowd early on.  At 9 am sharp, the gun went off and down the street we went!  I had no strategy…just to push.  I picked out a few folks in the crowd that I wanted to keep in my sight and just went for it.Mile 1 – 8:16

One mile done…let’s see whether I can hang on.  Near the end of the two mile mark is the big hill for the course.  How would my legs feel after tackling that hill?

Mile 2 – 9:00

I survived the hill!  Luckily there was a bit of net downhill to help my legs recover, and some beautiful city views and houses around to look at.  The kilometres seemed to be flying by, although I never was able to be quite as speedy as I was in the first mile.

Mile 3 – 8:48, 5K – 27:03

OK, halfway through.  Time to try and hang on and bring this home!  The best part about this mile is that it is through an out and back section.  I was able to see a bunch of teammates.  I waved at them all, although I didn’t quite have it in my to shout out.  The encouragement from seeing my friends was a nice pick me up!

Mile 4 – 8:55

The end of the mile was at the turn around for the out and back.  I got to see more friends along this section and then it was into Stanley Park for a few little hills along the way.  I tried to not look at my Garmin and just focus on running…one foot in front of the other.  People were passing me but I didn’t care.  I was just trying to hold on!

Mile 5 – 9:09

There was a sign and folks calling out our time with one mile left to go.  They were reminding us that we had breakfast waiting for us, so to just run hard to hurry up and get to breakfast!!  I knew I was in position to set a new PR, I just needed to keep this up.  I didn’t want to ease off and let a PB slip through my fingers.

Mile 6 – 8:51

As I hit 6 miles I arrived at the right turn on to Elbow Drive and the final push to the finish line.  Sharon was there waiting for me and as soon as she saw me she jumped in to push me through to the finish line.  I had forgotten that there was still a fair distance to the finish and I picked it up…but maybe just a bit too fast.  Sharon ran just a step ahead of me, telling me that my pace was great, that I had this, and she picked out people out ahead to focus on trying to catch.  I was wheezing…sounding like I was going to die…but I just hung on.  I couldn’t say anything to Sharon as that would have taken too much energy so I just did what I could to push.  Having her there, there was no arguing that I couldn’t do this!

All of a sudden there was the finish line and friends cheering me in!

Mile 0.26 – 2:08 (8:13/mi pace)

Final Garmin time – 55:10
Gun time – 55:16
Overall 264 out of 544
Females 30-34 – 12 out of 27

I couldn’t believe it, I set a new PR, and by a 1:11…and it was a whole 3:19 faster than the St. Patrick’s Day 10K.  I owe Sharon a huge thanks for pushing me at the end.  I was absolutely done at the end of the 10K so I know I gave it all I had.  So there we go…a super busy week of running and I still managed to eke out a new best.  I’m definitely happy!!!

Three Things Thursday

1. Last night near the end of my run I was running past a house where someone was obviously smoking something…other than tobacco.  Wow, that was an assault on the lungs and it was not pleasant!!
2. I had a 70 minute spin workout on my schedule today which I originally hoped to do outside.  I was outside at lunch with just a t-shirt and hoodie, no jacket.  By the time I left class (day two of First Aid) the temperature had dropped.  Wind gusts were up to 90 km/hr.  My car was shaking as I was sitting at stop lights the wind was so bad.  When I pulled into my garage big fluffy flakes of snow were falling.  I attempted to get mentally geared up for a trainer ride but I was eventually swayed by the promise of some delicious Hungarian goulash that my mom was cooking at my brother and sister-in-law’s place.  It is hard to ignore a rumbling tummy.
3. At dinner I was sitting next to my 2.5 year old niece.  She picked her nose, looked at me, tried to give me her booger, and told me to put it in the garbage.  I was laughing so hard, but thankfully my mom (a.k.a. grandma) was the quick thinking one and took care of that little nugget of gold…  I think…

Two Hours, Take Two

Happy hump day!  I am making my way through this busy week, one step at a time.

Monday was originally supposed to be a rest day, but I had to move my Wednesday swim and Monday was the only day it would work.  I did this of course with Angie’s blessing.  I went off to the Y and was in the water at 11 am for an 1800 m broken endurance set swim.  The swim went well.  I had a couple of set of swim golf in there and I’m still not noticing a ton of progress on those numbers but I just have to keep at it.

Tuesday I knocked out an easy 30 minute run over lunch.  Well, it felt easy but I actually had a bit of speed, which was nice!  I was hoping that this would only be a sign of good things to come for this week…  In the evening it was spin class and it was not an easy night!  We ran through a bunch of :30 hard/:30 easy intervals and later a 12 minute time trial.  Crazy stuff!  I pushed hard, although I do admit that I did dial the odd set back by one gear knowing what I had in store for me on Wednesday.  It definitely wasn’t sandbagging, I just needed to make sure the legs would have a bit of juice.

Wednesday….a crazy day…  When I mentioned that I would be arriving at the starting line of the Glencoe Icebreaker 10K tired.  No kidding.  I had a 90 minute long run on the schedule for Wednesday.  Originally I thought I could run from home into work but then I realized that I wouldn’t actually be at work.  I was scheduled for day one of two for a First Aid course in NE Calgary.  So no running before work, no running over lunch….that left running in the evening at 6 pm.  When I wasn’t successful in finishing my 2 hour run on Saturday I talked to Angie about whether I should make any changes to my schedule this week.  She advised that I run for 90 minutes and that if I felt strong I could add in the extra 30 minutes but to totally play it by ear. 

I got home, immediately changed into capris and a short sleeve top.  I tied an extra long sleeve top around my waist, threw two Hammer gels in a waist pack and grabbed a bottle of water.  I set off on my exact same route, running loops through the various cul-de-sacs around my neighbourhood.  It was still windy out, but it wasn’t nearly as biting as it was Saturday morning.  I was feeling strong!  And my mile splits were fast!!  I went out with the mindset that I was running 2 hours.  The first seven miles were great!  After that the legs got a bit tired as I started to hit more uphill territory.  My espresso Hammer gel with caffeine kicked in and the pace picked back up slightly.  For the final assault on the legs I ran up a big hill just over 10 miles in.  I climbed to the top, then brought it home to finish up the 2 hour run.  Considering that it was my hilliest run, it was also my fastest long run of the year.  I’m definitely feeling well set up for the hilly Police Half at the end of the month!

Tomorrow is Thursday and I wish I could say things slow down ahead of Glencoe…but no…  Should make things interesting Sunday morning!  There may be something to this running on tired legs thing…

Blustery Days!

One thing about Calgary, the wind sure blows around here!  On Saturday morning I watched the temperature climb a bit and the sun come out from behind the clouds.  Shorts, a short sleeve shirt, long sleeve shirt and I was set!  Um, or maybe not… 

I had opted to do my 2 hour run around my neighbourhood as I had a last minute vet appointment in the early afternoon to get Finlay too.  Soon after I stepped out the door I realized that maybe it wasn’t quite as nice as I thought.  The wind was blowing and it was chilly!  Oh well, I can persevere, right?  Physically the run was feeling fine.  I was mentally prepared for a 2 hour run, I had my water and I had two Gus – chocolate mint and a blueberry pomegranate Roctane.  An hour in I downed my chocolate mint Gu and opted to make a detour to the neighbourhood Starbucks.  After I got going again the wind really started to get to me.  My legs were turning red from the cold wind hitting them.  Now…I was running around my neighbourhood so I suppose I could have gone home and changed but by this time I was a ways away from home.  About 1 hr 20 min in I broke and decided to call it quits and head home.  So there we go…underdressing for my run caught up to me!!  I wound up being 30 minutes short, but oh well…  It was home for a quick lunch, then Finlay and I were off to the vet.  He’s been suffering from an ear infection lately and the verdict was that he still hasn’t kicked it yet, poor guy!  On the plus side the Scottish vet gave me the thumbs up for my Scottish name for my little Scottish dog.

On Sunday I had a ride to take care of.  It was still pretty windy out…but that is the joy of Calgary.  You just have to get used to it around here at this time of year.  Given the sunshine I had no desire to ride my trainer!  I bundled up, grabbed the Cervelo and hit the road heading north.  The wind wasn’t nearly as cold as Saturday, but it was still pretty strong.  I think it was a cross wind…sometimes it was a head wind…but it rarely seemed to be a tail wind!  My legs were definitely more tired compared to my quick ride on Friday.  As soon as I left home I could tell they didn’t have quite the same zip in them.  Oh well, I made it up and down the hills and all in all it was a pretty good ride.  I came home, put the bike back in the garage, swapped out bike shoes for sneakers and ran a quick 14 minute brick.  Home for some core and done!  It was a pretty good week – three swims, three rides outdoors, four runs.

And now on to this week.  It is going to be a busy one..and I’m a bit scared thinking of how I’m going to fit it all in.  I’m working my butt off in order to arrive at the start of the Glencoe Icebreaker 10K nice and tired.  Should be fun, eh?

A Pyramid of Hills

On Thursday I met up with Kelly for our hill workout.  We both had hill pyramids on our schedule – mine were 1-2-3-3-2-1 minute intervals, Kelly’s were 2-3-4-3-2 minute intervals.  Even though Kelly’s workout involved more minutes of climbing  I wanted to run her workout.  The big question was, could we find a 4 minute hill in downtown Calgary??  That was why I was keen to run her workout! 

We ran a 15 minute warm up around the river and wound up at the base of the Curling Club hill in time for the start of our 2 minute hill.  It was busy out!  We ran up the hill, finishing right at the top as our two minutes were up.  Now where to go for 3 minutes?  We continued on towards Center Street, running down the bridge.  We started near the bottom of the bridge and just about ran out of hill before our three minutes were up.  For four minutes we started on the pathway below the bridge, ran up the bridge and on to a very steep road.  We crested the road at 3.5 minutes so we stopped and the top and did squats for our last 30 seconds.  On our final 2 minute repeat I challenged Kelly to race up the bridge and we pushed ourselves hard!  I love hill workouts.  They are so rewarding and you know that you’ve worked hard when you are done.  Kelly and I really motivate each other too and I know we work harder together than I would do on my own.

Friday was actually supposed to be a rest day…but confession…I had missed a couple of workouts on Wednesday that I wanted to accomplish.  The first was a swim workout, called a swim golf mixer.  I did a 500 m warm up then ran through two 50 m swim golf sets.  I went into the drill set – more arm lead side kicks, head lead side kicks and 6 kick rolls.  These drills seem to show up in a lot of my workouts.  I think Angie is really trying to make sure I’m rolling from side to side during my swim stroke!  I then moved into a 400 m set of moderate and fast paced sets and finished with another two 50 m swim golf sets.  My score only changed by a point or two but I’m beginning to get the feel of things to do to decrease my swim stroke.  Later in the afternoon I went out in the glorious sunshine for a quick and easy 40 minute ride.  I’m getting the feel for my bike and so far the fit is very comfortable.  My way out was primarily uphill but it wasn’t feeling nearly as hard as I remembered.  When I turned around I realized that part of that may have been because I had a tail wind!  The ride was just a simple one through some neighborhoods looking at some fancy houses.  Lots of other cyclists were out there.

And with that, I’ve gotta get going…2 hour long run on tap!  Hope everyone is having a great weekend.